Fellow-citizens, our CALHOUN, our CLAY, and our WEBSTER are no more. Their great spirits are fled, and their
once towering forms
are now alike the lowly tenants of the tomb. They live no longer to
guide us by their counsels, nor to animate us to the performance
of good deeds, by the fervor and firmness of their patriotism. Who
now shall stand where they have stood? Who now shall lead
where they have led? Who now shall think for our country as
they have thought, or speak as they have spoken? Who now shall
rush to the rescue of the Constitution in the hour of peril? Who now
shall rise as the bulwarks of the Union when fiery fanatics and presumptuous demagogues shall assail it? Sad indeed are
the emotions
of our hearts, as we contemplate the melancholy bereavement which
our country has sustained. But let us never, never, fellow-citizens,
despair of the Republic. Though our revered patriots are gone, they
yet speak to us in "voices from the tomb sweeter than song." They
speak to us in their immortal precepts. They live in the light of their
ever glorious examples. By those precepts, and by that light, let all
who may hereafter be called to the service of the country, be guided
and governed. While we know that we can never hope to equal in
renown our departed patriots, we may at least emulate their virtues,
and follow in the "track of their fiery car." Let us remember,
that the more closely and diligently we pursue the high path of glory
trod by them, the more faithfully we shall discharge our sacred obligations to our country. Let us remember that there are
duties which
devolve upon the humble as well as the exalted ; and that in every
condition it is honorable to serve our native land. And while we
contemplate that unapproachable sphere of intellectual glory in which
our departed Statesmen and Orators revolved, we should not only feel
and act in accordance with the sentiment of Cicero: Tamen est pulchrum in
secundis tertiisque consistere;* but we may also derive consolation from the noble admonition of Quintilian:
Quin animo si hanc
cogitationem homines habuissent, ut nemo se meliorem fore eo, qui optimu s
fuisset, arbitraretur, hi ipsi, qui sunt optimi non fuissent. Verum
ut transeundi spes non sit, magna tanem est dignitas subsequendi.+ Our